ZAMBOANGA CITY, 07 Aug 2003 — A businesswoman kidnapped by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf gang in the southern Philippines escaped as security forces intensified their offensive against the rebels, officials said yesterday.
Gertrudes Tan fled from her captors’ hideout in the town of Maimbung on Tuesday, almost four months after her abduction, said Chief Superintendent Acmad Omar, police director for the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Omar said the woman escaped at around 4 a.m. and walked for more than an hour until she reached a highway in Maimbung town and flagged down a passenger jeep bound for downtown Jolo.
Tan went straight to a relative’s house and then sought refuge at a Catholic church.
Other reports said Tan was found by fishermen on a coast in Maimbung and she was later taken to the Catholic-run Notre Dame University in Jolo.
Omar said church officials turned the woman over to army soldiers, who flew her to Zamboanga City yesterday.
Officials would not say if Tan’s family paid ransom to the rebels, who earlier demanded 5 million pesos $90,900 in exchange for her safe release. Reports last week said the kidnap gang killed a courier after taking from him a 700,000-peso ($12,000) ransom for Tan’s freedom.
Tan, who looked haggard, wept as she stepped out of a military plane with Southern Command officials. She was met by her relatives and two sons and refused to speak to reporters.
She was brought on board an ambulance for the military base where she would undergo medical check-up.
Tan was the latest known victim of kidnap gangs that abound in the troubled island of Jolo.
Jolo bandits also kidnapped five preachers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who were selling perfumes in the island last year. The bandits beheaded one of their victims in Patikul town. The rest escaped separately after months in captivity.
The Abu Sayyaf was also tagged in the kidnapping of 3 Indonesian seamen off Jolo last year, one of whom was killed during a firefight with government troops. The other hostages escaped separately from their kidnappers several months later.
The group was linked to the kidnapping and killing of US nationals Guillermo Sobero in 2001 and Martin Burnham in 2002. Another American citizen, Jeffrey Schilling, was also kidnapped while visiting Jolo in 2000, but rescued several months later by the police.
